


Dance As You'd Like

by starryrosez



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dance, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Competition, M/M, Piercings, Tattoos
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-19
Updated: 2018-07-31
Packaged: 2019-06-13 02:47:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15354537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starryrosez/pseuds/starryrosez
Summary: A year after an accident that left Shiro badly scarred he returns to his favorite underground dance club to find that a gorgeous newcomer has taken his title of "The Champion" in the club's annual dance competition.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for the [Sheith Reverse Bang](https://sheithreversebang.tumblr.com/), enjoy!

_ Nothing has changed.  _ Shiro thinks to himself as he enters the place.  _ It’s the same old club I’ve known all these years.  _

 

The strobe lights still one headaches but are as flashy and mesmerizing as he remembers. The smell of alcohol is as strong as the last time he’s been there. It’s all the same, which is needless to say a relief to Shiro. He hasn’t been here in a year, not since the accident.

 

It was just another summer night filled with dancing and drinking and music. Shiro had stayed out for too long and desperately needed to get back home. He was wasted, and while his friends insisted that they can drive him home, Shiro insisted he could drive himself. How wrong he was.

In a blink of an eye, Shiro found himself half-conscious on the side of the road, every bone in his aching. He could barely feel the blood seeping around as he heard the lulling siren of the police. His vision was blurry but he was able to make out a paramedic leaning over him and making sure he was okay before darkness consumed him. 

 

When he woke up, he found himself in a white room with a bandage head, two casted appendages and scars all over his body. The doctors told him it was a miracle he was even alive, the ejection from the driver’s seat from the speed he was going at and the impact as he landed on the pavement should have ended him. They told him it was even more miraculous he wasn’t paralyzed from the waist down and that he only twisted his knees and sprained his ankle. 

 

Full recovery was expected to happen over 14 months but Shiro had recovered fast. But he hasn’t gone back since the accident, he just couldn’t bring himself to. 

 

But now he’s back and the nostalgia is starting to wave over him. He wonders if everybody he’s aqiantanced here still works here, or still dances or goes out for drinks here…

 

“Shiro!” Lance Fernandez, one of Shiro’s best friends calls out. He’s an aspiring actor with hard-luck. The only reason Shiro is even there is because Lance had invited him to. 

 

Lance is at a table close to the walls of the club. A bright pink neon sign with margaritas flashes above the heads of Lance and his company: Allura and Matt. 

 

Shiro slides into the empty seat next to Lance and is immediately greeted by his other friends.

 

“Welcome back,” Allura says as she raises her glass, “We’ve missed you.”

 

Matt nods in agreement as he copies her action, “Yeah man, we were beginning to believe you’d never come back.”

 

“Yeah, a lot of things have happened since...you know,” Allura smiles sympathetically, her eyes eying Shiro’s tattoos that cover his scars, “But now that you’re here, we can continue everything just like the old times.”

“I’ll drink to that,” Lance says as he raises his drink, “To Shiro’s return!”

 

“To Shiro’s return!” the others join in.

 

Shiro laughs, “Thanks guys, I’m glad to be back.”

 

Just then, the music changes and grabs everyone's attention. Even his friends are turning towards the gathering crowd. This immediately catches Shiro’s attention and he turns to the crowd. What is this commotion? Why is everybody suddenly interested on what’s happening on the dance floor? The crowd never acted this way when Shiro went here, they were always in their own world. The only time a crowd like this gathered was when…

 

Shiro stands up and begins to push through the crowd. Lance and Allura immediately follow suit and shove past the others to make their way towards Shiro. 

 

“Shiro, we have been meaning to tell you this, but we were hoping to tell you later,” Allura shouts over the music.

 

“Shiro, it’s really crowded out here! Come back!” Lance shouts.

 

Shiro ignores the two of them as he pushes to the front and freezes. He feels his entire body jolt as he looks at the ring around him and in the middle, a dancer, and a very good one that is. He’s got a slim body, and the way he moves is capturing and sexy. His black hair is tied up into a small ponytail and his abs, glistening with sweat, peek through his attire. 

 

A wave of nostalgia hits Shiro and almost knocks him over. If it weren’t for Lance’s hand on Shiro’s shoulder, he probably would’ve fallen back. 

 

“Who is that?” Shiro asks, “He’s amazing.”

 

Lance and Allura look at each other before turning to Shiro. Lance clears his throat, “Well, that’s the guy who stole your title.”

 

“Last year’s champion: Keith,” Allura says.

 

Shiro turns back to the dancer. He is an amazing dancer, but what makes him so captivated is his attractiveness. It grabs ones attention, and of course with the way Keith moves, how can Shiro not be attracted to that?

 

Before long ,the song ends and the crowd shifts to surround him and bombard him with compliments. Shiro finds himself compelled to meet this guy himself.

 

To check out the guy who now holds his former title. To meet this fantastic dancer. To have the chance to get a conversation with such an attractive guy…

 

Shiro steps forward but begins to notice just how many people are interested in talking with him. People are taking pictures and animatedly speaking with him making it near impossible to squeeze in. 

 

Shiro turns back to his friends with a smile, “Let’s go back, I’m craving a drink.”

 

The three of them return to their table and continue talking. Allura talks about the current music video she’s choreographing while Lance talks about his latest audition. As much as Shiro enjoys being with his friends at the club again, his mind keeps on wandering to the dancer he had just seen on the dancefloor. Matt must’ve noticed because he side-eyes him with a look of concern. He doesn’t say anything, but the way he looks at Shiro makes him feel uncomfortable until finally, he speaks up.

 

“Matt?” Shiro asks.

 

“His name is Keith Kogane, you know,” Matt says, “He’s a sophomore at the community college downtown.”

 

Shiro flushes, how did Matt know he was wondering that?

 

“You looked lost in thought,” Matt answers, leaning forward with a teasing grin on his face, “So, any questions about Keith?”

 

Shiro’s face reddens even more as Allura and Lance turn to him.

 

“You want to know about Keith?” Allura asks, her blue eyes sparkling with interest.

 

Shiro nods.

 

“Well, why didn’t you ask us earlier? C’mon ask us, we’ll give you what we know,” Lance says as he turns to Shiro with that shit-eating grin of his. 

 

“Okay, when did he start coming to the club?”

 

All three of their faces fall into a serious look and Shiro feels his blood freeze. Did he ask something wrong?

 

“We don’t…” Allura starts.

 

“He just showed up out of nowhere.”  

Shiro turns to Lance who is fiddling with his glass. Lance looks up and explains, “He just one day showed up. It was the day of the competition and when they called his name he emerged from the crowd and performed. And he’s been here, as the champion, ever since. Nobody knows why he’s here, why he competed, and where he comes from. He’s a public figure shrouded in mystery.” 

 

“I see,” Shiro responds his mind going back to the dancer. He wonders if he lived in the area… Maybe he’ll somehow run into him on the street? Or he’ll spot a glimpse of him while shopping. It doesn’t matter, as long as Shiro can see him again he’ll be happy. 

 

Shiro stays at the bar for another hour before realizing the time and dismissing himself from the fun. He drives back to his apartment complex and wonders to himself,  _ What if Keith lived right in this apartment complex?  _ He immediately scratches the idea off because that's just wishful thinking. It’s a big city and he could live anywhere, he might not even live in the city itself but in the outskirts. The point is, the chances of Keith ever setting foot here is all but a small chance. 

 

Shiro enters the lobby and greets his neighborhoods before heading into the elevator that takes him up to his floor. Shiro thinks about using the stairs to get some more exercise in for the day but he then decides that it’ll be too much for him, he’s still recovering from his injuries of course. When Shiro gets off the elevator he thinks about why he’s even so attracted to keith in the first place.

 

It’s the violet eyes, the way they passionately look around the room, seducing anybody who looks into them. It’s those hips and the seducing way athey move when Keith is dancing, captivating everybody. Shiro had to admit it, Keith deserves that title, but Shiro has every intent on winning it back.

 

_ Nine weeks _ . He has nine weeks to work on something to get it back. 

 

As Shiro approaches his apartment, he catches a familiar figure standing in front of the apartment next to his. It was somebody new, his old neighbor, an old lady who really liked baking cookies had moved to a nursing home a month ago. This must be his new neighbor, and yet, Shiro feels like he’s seen the guy before. 

 

Shiro approaches the stranger and offers him a smile, “Oh? Are you living here now? If so then it’s nice to meet you. I’m your neighbor Takashi--

 

The stranger looks up and Shiro freezes mid-sentence. Those violet eyes he’s been fantasizing about all day are staring right at him with the most confused look on earth. He couldn’t believe his luck. And here he was just a few minutes ago telling himself the chances of Keith living in the same apartment complex as him were slim. Keith is his _ neighbor _ for christ’s sake. 

 

“--Shirogane,” Shiro finishes as he holds out his hand to Keith.

Keith smiles as he takes Shiro’s hand, “Keith Kogane, nice to meet you.”

 

Keith turns back his door and opens it. In a second, Keith will disappear inside his apartment and who knows when Shiro will have the opportunity to talk this guy again. Before Keith can step foot inside Shiro clears his throat, grabbing Keith’s attention. Keith turns to Shiro with a curious look.

 

“Yes?” he asks.

 

“Uh,” Shiro blushes. He spoke up before thinking about what he should say. He’s actually embarrassed now that he’s so easily flustered in front of this attractive guy, “Has anybody shown you around yet? If not I can show you around.”

 

Keith lights up at the offer. He doesn’t seem the type to let his feelings flow freely through his actions but the way Keith’s eyes sparkled when Shiro offered a tour made Shiro’s heart skip a beat, “Sure.”

 

“Okay cool,” Shiro waves his hand towards him, “I’ll show you around.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Art by: Lyrikin  
> Thanks for reading, comments are always appreciated!


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy!

The next door neighbor who offered to show Keith around is hot. From the moment he first introduced himself to Keith, Keith was swooning over him. He was going to invite him over to have something to drink but instead fate had decided that this insanely hot guy was going to show Keith around the neighborhood. He was certainly not going to argue against a golden opportunity. This might as well be the window Keith needs in order to open a gateway to friendship. Not like he’s been good at them in the first place.

 

In all 20 years of his life, he’s only ever had two friends: Hunk and Pidge. They’ve been his closest friends since his junior year in high school. He still see them often, in fact he saw them this morning. Hunk and Pidge went to the dance studio to where Keith practices to record his dancing. Or well, just Hunk, Pidge only went to watch.

 

Hunk is a film major at the major art institute in the city and wants to become a hollywood director when he’s older. He films just about anything and when Keith was asked to dance for one of Hunk’s documentaries, Keith happily obliged. After recording, Keith had invited them over to the club Keith dances at. And that is how Keith found himself at the club under everyone’s eye.

 

He was basically a celebrity at that underground club, and it was all because of that contest he took part in. Now whenever he entered the club, everybody begged to see a performance of his dancing. It was a nuisance but as soon as the music began to play, Keith begun to lose himself to it and forgot about the crowd around him. But no matter how much the music can make him forget about the rest of the world, as soon as it’s gone, the crowd reappears.    
  


Keith should be used to the overwhelming attention he gets, but the sad truth was that he will never get used to it. One girl wanted a selfie with him. Another guy was trying to pry Keith’s whole life story out of him. Several people wanted autographs or just a chance to say how much they admired him. He tried to be as friendly as possible but he had his limitations.Luckily, Hunk and Pidge were able to steer most of them away so that Keith wasn’t stuck with awkward conversations with strangers the entire time. 

 

Which brings him to the present, where he’s finally walking back to his apartment next to his attractive neighbor. He had asked Keith to call him Shiro. He was tall and had arms that tempted Keith to grab a hold of to see how strong they were. He had a tattoo on his shoulder and piercings. The type of guy who would go to the underground club Keith goes to, one who would fit right in. But he’s never seen the guy at the club before, and Keith had a pretty good memory, he never forgot a face, and especially not one as attractive as Shiro’s. 

 

As they approach their apartments, Shiro turns to Keith and bows like a prince before his royal highness. “I’ll see you later Keith,” He says with a flirtatious wink.

 

Keith chuckles, “I’ll see you then. Thanks for showing me around.”

 

“No problem, if you ever need anything I’m here,” Shiro smiles as he opens the door. Before Keith can turn to his own door, Shiro turns around. The confidence suede he had earlier is now gone and he actually looks kind of nervous as he looks at Keith, “Actually… would you like to come in?”

 

Keith nods, “Sure.” And follows his neighbor inside.

 

Neighboring apartments are all made to mirror each other, so the layout is quite familiar to Keith because it resembles his own. There’s a couch greeting Keith as soon as he enters and to his left there’s a kitchen with a black obsidian island. Keith knows that towards the back is the bedroom and on the left side a bathroom. Just like Keith’s except his apartment has everything to the right. 

 

Keith takes a seat on the couch as Shiro heads into the kitchen and takes out a bag of chips. “Would you like anything to drink?”

 

“I’m good,” Keith shakes his head. 

 

“You sure?” Shiro asks, to which Keith nods, “Suit yourself.” 

 

He pours a glass of water for Keith anyways and gives it to Keith when he returns to him, setting on the coffee table in front of the couch. Keith takes the glass of water, but he does not drink it. Instead his eyes fixate on the collectibles adorning Shiro’s bookshelves. There’s lots of photos of him and his friends and a few memoirs. A small case of medals and a few trophies placed throughout. Keith takes his time studying every single object, listening to the story each of the objects tell. The case of medals are from Shiro’s academic achievements, each plaque telling Keith what the awards are. He’s apparently really good at STEM judging from all the math and science medals awarded to him. He once earned a trophy for a sport he played, the figure playing the sport seems to be broken and Keith cannot tell what sport Shiro used to play. All other trophies are trophies earned from competitions. There’s a robotics one, one related to an experiment, and a lot of dancing related ones. Wait.

 

Keith stands up to get a closer look at the trophies. He swore he’s seen this one particular trophy before. The very same one he has stored in a box next door. The inscription on the plaque reads:

 

**Dance for Life 2016 Competition Winner:** Takashi Shirogane

 

“You’re the former Champion?” Keith asks, lifting the trophy and looking down at it. It’s a cheap trophy, and by far the smallest of all the trophies Shiro owns, and yet it’s kept so well intact compared to the others. Shiro obviously held the achievement close to his heart. It made Keith wonder what happened. Why did he stop?

 

“Yes,” Shiro replies. Keith can tell that he’s a bit distressed from the question so Keith places the trophy back on the shelf, “I was the champion four years in a row.”

 

“What--” Keith’s words fall short as he realizes that it probably isn’t a good idea to ask. Instead, Keith returns to the couch and takes a drink of his glass of water. 

 

“I have a few recordings of my previous performances if you’d like to see them.”

 

Keith smiles, “I’d love to.”

 

Keith wonders what Shiro’s dancing is like. Is his dancing rough and straight to the point. Is it smooth and light. What style does he prefer? Is he closer to jazz, or is he just contemporary in general?

 

Shiro turns on the tv and takes a CD labelled,  _ Dance Practice, _ before inserting it into the DVR. Immediately, the familiar dance studio Keith likes to practice in is seen with Shiro front and center. He’s in front of the mirror stretching. Through the mirror, Keith can spot the person recording is a pretty girl with dark skin and long white hair. 

 

“Ready?” the girl asks.

 

Shiro stops stretching and nods, “Ready.”

 

“Lance, hit it!”

 

A voice off screen yells, “Okay!”

 

And a song starts playing. Shiro gets into his starting position. In reality, Shiro takes a seat next to Keith. 

 

Keith recognizes the song as (skip)

 

Shiro dances like it’s his lifeline, he’s gentle but at the same time rough as if he’s holding on to something. Maybe he’s like Keith, he uses dancing as an escape from everything. That while he dances he gets lost in it and the only thing he’s aware of is the music and his own body moving. 

 

He’s good. No wonder Shiro has been the reigning Champion for years. But what caused him to suddenly stop? Why was he not there last year? 

 

The music changes into something more EDM and the Shiro on screen steps into rhythm naturally. His dancing shifts into something erratic, his movement sparsing with no logical meaning, and yet still remains to be intruding. It fits the song, his style is sporadic and energizing just like the song itself. 

Through the mirror, the girl holding the camera is joined by another boy and Keith watches as the boy fondly smiles at Shiro, he turns towards the girl.

 

“He’s amazing,” the boy tells her, his voice overlapping the music. 

 

“I know,” the girl proudly says, “If he wanted to, he could become a professional dancer…”

 

“Like you?” the boy laughs, “Allura you know how he is.”

 

“Ah,” Shiro slides down the couch, his face slightly red, “I forgot this conversation happens…”

 

“I know, Lance, but it’s wasted potential, why spend so much time practicing for some underground club competition when he could be making a living out of this?”

 

Keith can tell that this is something a bit personal. Keith’s lays a hand on top of Shiro’s and offers him a shy smile, “You can turn it off.”

 

Shiro’s eyes widen and he nods reaching out for the remote and then proceeding to turn off the tv after. The tv turns off with a soft click and the two men are faced with the silence of Shiro’s apartment. Keith turns to Shiro and notices how stressed he looks. Keith smiles sympathetically.

 

“Did...did you…?” Keith’s words fail to come out but he’s sure Shiro understands what he’s trying to say. _ Did you want to become a professional dancer? _

 

“At one point in my life, yes, yes I did,” Shiro admits, “But that chapter in my life has passed.” 

 

Keith nods in understanding, things like that happen, but he can’t help but wonder what has happened. Why did he stop? Why did he only compete in some underground club? Why did he stop there too? 

 

“Are you coming back this year?” Keith asks, eying the trophies on the shelf. 

 

“Yeah,” Shiro sighs, “It’s been a while and the competition may be a month away, but I think I’ll be alright.”

 

Keith smiles, “Even though you’ll be competing against me? I’m going to keep my title.”

 

Shiro laughs, “We’ll see about that.” 

 

Keith looks down at the time on his phone and realizes how late it is. He has classes in the morning and he still has a paper to write before going to sleep. Keith stands up and grabs his belongings. 

“I have to go,” Keith announces, “I’ll see you whenever?”

 

“Yeah,” Shiro stands up beside Keith and walks him to the door. 

 

They stand in front of the door, face to face. In the dim lighting of the lamp above their heads, Keith notices how tired Shiro looks. He wonders to himself again just what his neighbor has gone through. 

 

Why now? 

 

Keith smiles as he holds out his hand to Shiro, “I wish you luck in reclaiming your title, no hard feelings right?”

 

“Of course not,” Shiro responds, taking Keith’s hand, “I wish you luck too.”

 

Keith smiles before turning around and taking a deep breath, “Goodnight Shiro.”

 

“Goodnight.”

 

When he steps out into the hallway and looks back at Shiro who waves at him, he wonders to himself: will he be able to stay on top?

  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Follow my [tumblr](https://rosiekeith.tumblr.com) for updates :)  
> Thanks for reading and comments are always appreciated! <3


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